MrWolf

That's very nice of you to say and I would like to clarify that I never thought for a moment that you were casting any kind of aspersions, nor even nasturtiums in the direction of she who got me back into modelmaking and art in a matter of weeks. Nor anyone else for that matter. I thought that you were pointing out one of those truths of marital diplomacy that are no longer permitted to air at work or on social media. I read only on Wednesday that it's now apparently offensive to say that you "like a woman who takes care of herself" It's offensive to all the betracksuited, tattooed wombles who waddle around like mother goose, whilst swearing at their children and stuffing a Greggs sausage and bean bake into their cakehole... Whilst in the next breath there was talk about men must keep hands and fingernails spotless, because it's a massive turnoff to women and suggests that we are both a low value slob and a low achieving, low ambition, low earner. Below which was an extensive list of do's, don'ts and must haves. Logic has no part in the modern world .... PS, I thought your comment was damned funny!

That's a very peculiar class 37, appears to have had a more severe nose job than Michael Jackson....

To be fair, being eBay the items were pitched as "rare" and "collectable" with an, shall we say, optimistic starting bid. Piles of leftover wagon kit parts usually sell if a few goodies are thrown in. Having perused some of Miss R's technical books it seems that the term Weltschmerz is annotated with "See Also: Airfix wagon wheel disappointment syndrome". Basically, a form of general depression caused by the comparison of one's Ideal world with the world as it actually is....

Lucky it was MDF, most of the sheep enclosures around here are made with drystone walls,.....

Unsurprisingly, no. I tend to save the odd bits of brake gear and alternate parts from kits, but plastic wheels and couplings tend to go in the bin. Instruction sheets, I have kept examples of just for the prototype and numbering information.

One of the blue labelled versions was picked up at an exhibition, the other from eBay, the rest from who knows where. I did spot a job lot on eBay recently that consisted of header cards, instructions, those awful wheels and couplings and odd bits of brake gear. I thought somebody had been going through my dustbin...

Don't think that would be an issue, she's not in the habit of buying useless cr@p. And if it was meant to be innuendo, it's not very funny.

Fortunately I don't have that problem and if I go with the old yardstick of having met mother, never will.

That's across the street from our place. Not my cobblestones, not my moss. As in the old German saying "Not my circus, not my monkeys". If it was mine, the weeds would be gone because there'd be an enormous corrugated iron roof over it, creating a superior Shed of Doom.

Duplicate post, dodgy internet!

Real world, most patchy. Also, the setts around here have had the joints sealed with pitch, a very long time ago, presumably to keep them in place and discourage weeds, although it has broken up quite a bit now.

Having sold few items and bought the Earl, I decided to have a dig in the Box of Doom and see what I have in the way of a train for it. I've turned up thirteen W1 cattle wagons and more than enough wheels, bearings and couplings to build them. It's slightly less shameful because it represents a lifetime's collection, rather than a frighteningly expensive eBay job lot. I won't be starting this project or that of backdating the Earl until later in the year and certainly not before I get the village end of the layout put together. It was remarked upon that I seem to have an awful lot of wagons and only one railway. I pointed out that the other person in the house has many hats, but she has only one head. She also has many dresses but only one... Luckily I remembered that I too have only one head and I'd like to keep it where it is, if it's all the same, so I decided against pursuing that line of reasoning....

Don't forget exploding boxcars!

Hmm. Single track branch line. 150+ wagons already. They'll be interesting to see, but I promise not to get all over excitable. 🤪

I've always liked outside frame, fly crank locos too, particularly those which survived late on. An outside frame Pannier would be nice.... Those old Midland locos also have very nice lines to them particularly the 2-4-0 and 4-4-0 examples. At least fixing the Kirtley will make a change from fighting with bits of rails, cracking job you've made of it by the way, it must be very satisfying to see trains weaving through it.

Back to railways... What? I hear you say: We don't come here for that sort of talk, we can get that anywhere! Having sold off some of the surfeit of older locomotives, Yes, really, Dr. Riding Hood had to go and lie down before she wilted in a Marlene Dietrich fashion and contemplate whether she should have studied psychiatry instead of genetics... The Clun Valley branch has taken delivery of an Earl class 4-4-0, surplus from Cardiff shed. Well, Rob @NHY 581in fact who had decided that it was surplus to requirements and wanted to find it a suitable home. I collected it from the post office this morning and it's already had some, ahem, extensive testing... As you can see it's in BR black, but the lessons learned and confidence gained via numbers 23 and 2091 mean that won't be a problem, especially as there's a set of black GWR number plates in the box to replace the red ones fitted. The main task for this loco is going to be hauling the sheep train, which I think is most appropriate given its origin. it's also likely to be used to bolster the Dean Goods locos on the timber trains or haul the market day specials. A very useful engine. Thanks Rob!

Brave man. Despite all the jokes we made, I never wanted to be inside a prime target like that with little chance of getting out when hit. Respect due.

It may not seem railway related, but such a vehicle, if you only have one vehicle on the layout, helps pin down the time period as much as the trains. My layout is set pretty much in 1938/9, just before things went sideways in the most terrible fashion. As a result, as you all know, not much changed, particularly around country railways until they were all ripped up. So as I've said before, with a change of stock and the road vehicles, I can jump forward a decade or two, certainly into the early sixties. As many model railways feature these vans I came up with this. If you watch any piece of British film made between 1952 and about 1980, you're likely to see one (or lots) of these old Bedfords. Although there were myriad changes made over the 17 year production run, The big changes which would define the time period are set out below. 1952-58, split windscreen, slatted grille stamped as part of the front panel pressing. Smooth roof on standard vans. (Oxford Diecast) Above, the early van as produced in the fifties by Lesney / Matchbox. The proportions are spot on, why they chose to paint the grille panel silver is a mystery though. 1959-64, single screen, wire mesh grille, Bedford lettering above, ribbed roof, option for long wheelbase. (Oxford Diecast) 1964-69, confusingly, the MkII. Much bigger screen, Bedford badge now part of a cowl over the air intake below it, polished aluminium grille. This is a long wheelbase version. (Corgi Trackside)

Very nice indeed, I'm reminded to dig out the D&S AA16 brake van and get that built. Once I get the MacAdam malarkey out of the way of course.

The Bedford is a bit of an oddball, it was made by Corgi rather than Dinky (who produced the Kodak liveried version you have) They upgraded their early split screen model in line with the changes Bedford made to the real thing in September 1958 by altering the grille and using a one piece windscreen, by March 59 Bedford did away with the detachable spats over the rear wheels and the following September altered the screen pillars to make the screen even wider. Not that small boys would have noticed the minor changes, or that Corgi had based their model on a prototype that lasted barely six months. Here endeth today's useless information.....

I do miss having both a stove and open fires. I used to enjoy collecting and cutting firewood. I never bought coal, there was free fuel all around where I lived.

Good point, that picture is high definition so could be printed to the right size and used to disappear a country road off the backscene without any problems. If it's of interest to anyone reading this thread, feel free to download and make use of this picture:

The only memory I have of them is I think from Oliver the western engine, remarking that Oliver was "A wee bit small for the kind of work you have in mind " shortly before Oliver gets shoved R Send first into the turntable well by a rake of mineral wagons. The hardback cover of which was dark blue, which might explain the brain fahrt.

Colour wise, it's going to be a case of keep it pale. I remember my first efforts at painting a road on a layout, using a mixture of "tarmac coloured" paint. It looked like someone had installed a Scalextric track on the same board as the Hornby trainset. Even an eleven year old me could see that it looked wrong. I'm going to try to imitate the lighter colour as seen in this picture of a little used road locally. It was apparently last surfaced sometime during WW2, so the colour should be about right.

Thanks, the sky was a pure accident created by poor lighting. I need to sort out the backscene and reinstate the Shropshire hills. Using a couple of decades worth of Dinky toys as paperweights has worked though, no ripples or stuck up edges. All I need to do now is make it look like an actual road and blend everything in. Hopefully it won't be as fraught as modelling the station yard was!